Homeowners share opposition to solar farm
A revenue boon for local taxing agencies, or an unsightly health threat and trigger for home devaluations?
Supporters and opponents shared their arguments regarding a proposed solar-powered generating facility to be located in Harrison Township during a hearing held Aug. 31 by the Ohio Power Siting Board.
As first reported in February by The Advocate, Union Ridge Solar LLC is proposing construction of a 107.7 megawatt solar-powered facility on what is presently Harrison Township farmland.
According to a OPSB new release, “The project would consist of large arrays of ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) modules, commonly referred to as solar panels. The project would occupy up to 449 acres within a 523-acre project boundary, and would include access roads, an operations and maintenance building, underground electrical collection lines, weather stations, and a substation.”
The Tuesday night hearing was the next step in the OPSB'S process of potentially issuing a certificate to Union Ridge to proceed with the project. OPSB recently conducted its own investigation process that included collections of depositions, and field and site visits.
The next step in the process will involve an adjudicatory or evidentiary hearing at 10 am. on Sept. 14, in Columbus.
An attorney from the firm of Bricker & Eckler representing Union Ridge was present for the Aug. 31 hearing; neither he nor presiding OPSB judges posed any follow up questions to those providing sworn testimony at the hearing.
Matt Lamp was the first to speak, doing so behalf of the landowners, and who described himself as a fourth-generation farmer, but one challenged by the increasingly changing conditions in Harrison Township.
He said the family farms in four counties, and, “Truth is, it's getting more and more difficult to move equipment up and down the road.”
He said the solar concept “will allow us to diversify and keep the farm going for generations.”
Representatives of Grow Licking County and the Southwest Licking Local School District also spoke in favor of the project.
Grow Licking County Executive Director Alexis Fitzsimmons said major employers such as Amazon, Google and Facebook are attracted to the area by alternative energy infrastructure and noted the financial benefits for local taxing agencies.
One of those is the Southwest Licking School District, whose superintendent, Dr. Kasey Perkins, noted during her testimony that SWL, a district “capped” under state funding formulas that don't compensate for increasing district enrollment, will see $445,000 in annual revenue over the multi-decade life of the solar agreement if it goes forward.
But Harrison Township residents living in various proximities to the site in question – some whose properties bound the proposed solar array on one or more sides – spoke in opposition to the project.
Brad Williams raised health concerns stemming from materials within the panels themselves, comparing them to once-thought benign construction materials such as asbestos and lead water pipes.
“There are so many unknowns about solar and panels to that large a degree, I'm just not willing to chance that in my community,” Williams said.
He wondered, as did several others, why Amazon and similar large firms couldn't instead install the panels on the rooftops of their million-plus square feet buildings elsewhere within Licking County.
Watkins Road resident James Mathews counts himself among those who will be daily facing the array.
“I will look directly at these solar panels,” he testified. “I know they are going to put trees and shrubbery and decorate it very beautifully, but sitting on top of a hill, I think I'll be waiting a while for that to block my view.”
Others noted that the height of the panels will exceed the plant-height of screening shrubbery by several feet initially. Mathews wondered if there could be, “More setback? Maybe fewer panels?”
Others spoke of impacts on surrounding home values.
Still others were upset they weren't served notice by Union Ridge as some other closer-by homeowners were. One woman testified, “We were clueless. We don't get the newspapers. We don't Facebook.”
Others rue the proposed solar project as another step away from the rural Pataskala they grew up in.
William Muncy of Watkins road says he lives about “five football fields” from the proposed array site. “When I moved out here as a child my dog could go out on the road and fall asleep… It was gravel road. Now it takes five minutes to get out of the driveway, sometimes. I'm not big on this growth stuff… We're about being country. That's what gets my goat… I want to keep us the old Pataskala.”